Roman Holiday (Percabeth AU)
by cursedheroes
Summary: What if Annabeth was part of Hera's exchange program instead of Percy?


Breakfast at Camp Half Blood was stressed as being the most important meal of the day, so naturally all campers were expected to show up and sit respectively with their cabins and half siblings. While some hated the fact that this meant they were required to wake up at 7 excluding weekends, others stocked up on food for the day after placing an offering for their parents in Olympus. Percy Jackson normally sat alone, but at this point no one bothered to stop his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena, from sitting next to him.

They had been through so much the thought of it all made Percy's head hurt. And he still couldn't believe it all started when they were _12_. To be fair, he had been _12_ , Annabeth Chase came to Camp Half Blood when she was only _7_. They had saved the world on more than one occasion, and in the process literally went to hell and back, a journey the two were still recovering from, even though when asked they faked a smile and forced a laugh and responded with the easy words "I'm fine." Annabeth had once told him after a camper asked how they were doing that the word fine had slowly started to lose it's meaning for her, because now every time she said it she was lying, it was merely a cover up for all of the bad thoughts and awful scenes going on in her brain that made her the complete opposite of fine.

The thing was, you couldn't exactly explain to kids in a summer camp what _Tartarus_ was like.

Yeah, Percy realized they were like him, children of the Greek Gods. But like him, no one asked to be a demigod, no one wanted to be one.

Because at the end of the day, he had to remind himself that they were just _children_ , they weren't meant to be _heroes_.

Sometimes Percy would stop and wonder what his life would be like had he not experienced being a demigod, and then he would laugh, because the thought of not having to fight monsters or go on ridiculous quests was even more ridiculous than finding out they existed in the first place. He'd rather fight a minotaur everyday if it meant he wouldn't have to take his _SAT's,_ but of course, Annabeth still insisted they would need them to go to College in New Rome anyway. Percy might hate school with a passion, but he still longed for the day when he could go to College as a break from the rest of the world and enjoy it with his girlfriend beside him. Gods, he loved her.

He loved her more than anyone he had ever known,it sounded cheesy, but if he had to do everything over again just to end up with her, he would do it in a heartbeat.

Annabeth Chase was his anchor, he gave up Olympus for her, he saved Olympus for her. Without Annabeth Chase, Percy would go insane.

Though the thought scared him, he knew it wasn't impossible. Every so often he would feel the tug of darkness start to build up inside of him, the same thirst for revenge he got a taste of in Tartarus. Sometimes, as much as he hated it, Percy would wish the Gods got a small sense of what he had to go through. The monsters, the battles, the suffering, he wondered what any of them would do if they had to watch their friends die. Innocent people who had done nothing wrong, some of them were _children_ , younger than he was now and they had been forced to give up their lives. And what was it all for? _Their parents?_

Beside Percy in Cabin 3, a jet of water hit the ceiling from the fountain. Percy sat up in bed and could see the waves sloshing back and forth as if it were a hurricane inside of his cabin, Percy tried to calm his breathing down. Often it was in the morning after a nightmare or horrid thought when his powers would start to get slowly out of control. He never told anyone but Annabeth, because it scared him, and he didn't want his friends to fear him. He knew she had. He had seen the look of her eyes as he had tortured Misery, the way she had stepped back as if she couldn't believe the things he was doing. He never wanted to make anyone feel like that again. He was their hero, not their villain. They didn't deserve to be afraid of him.

After changing into a fresh, abnormally bright orange t-shirt, Percy Jackson headed out of his cabin and into the atmosphere of Camp Half Blood. It was a place that felt more like home than his own, despite the fact that his mother wasn't here. He wished she was, Percy made a mental note to Iris Message her later, knowing her she would be worried if he didn't at least everyday. Or every week, minimum. Percy couldn't help smiling as he saw the younger campers play a game of frisbee, normal, mortal, frisbee. Two girls he didn't recognize were joined by a boy from the Apollo Cabin, Ryan.

"Up top!" He shouted with a grin and Ryan looked over and passed the disk to him, Percy caught it with ease. Since he had been training so long, his reflexes never failed him,even though Ryan wasn't too far away, the quick move seemed to impress them.

Their jaws dropped, he felt a slight satisfaction and suppressed a grin as he threw it back to them, one of the girls caught it and Percy smiled before waving goodbye as he headed to the Breakfast Pavilion a bit early.

The weather was warm today, if not a bit cloudy.

Percy could see the grey slowly starting to overshadow the white but he knew he had nothing to worry about, he had learned when he was 12 that the Camp's weather was different than anywhere else. What less could he expect? After all, this was a place for young gods.

Sometimes he nearly forgot they were half human.

The trumpet sounded and everyone flocked to where he was already getting his plate and sitting down at his table that would almost always be empty because he was the only son of Poseidon, with the exception of Tyson, who was working with their father to build weapons like the other Cyclops. Percy couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia overcome him as he remembered the second quest with Tyson and Annabeth to rescue Grover. The last time he had seen the Satyr was when he had returned from Camp, his old best friend had nearly cried when he saw him and Percy felt a tear come down his cheek as they hugged.

Grover had introduced him to everything he knew about the Gods, and more than that he had been his best friend before he knew about it, without Grover, Percy wouldn't have had anyone in school. Now Grover had returned to the Wilderness, shortly after celebrating his birthday at Camp he had said goodbye. Percy wasn't sad this time though, because he knew goodbye's didn't mean forever. He would see Grover again, it was only a matter of time.

This morning, however, everyone seemed a bit on edge. No one came up to Percy's table like they usually did, even if they didn't sit, campers would come up and say hello or have a conversation. Normally it was his friends, but last week a new girl had asked him to teach him how to swordfight, and he gladly accepted, knowing exactly how she felt. The girl's name was Terra Briar, a newly claimed daughter of Demeter, and she had stressed to Percy that she didn't want anyone to think she wasn't a fighter both because she was a girl and because of her godly parent. Percy had told her that being a girl didn't mean she couldn't fight, and allowed her to best him to show her that. Percy encouraged her to come to practice and ask him to help whenever she wanted, and if anyone gave her trouble about being a girl she should tell him or Annabeth Chase, knowing whoever was bothering her would back off the second they saw either of them.

"Percy, there you are!" Percy turned around with a jolt to find Nico Di Angelo who seemed very much out of breath standing beside his boyfriend, Will Solace. The two glanced nervously at each other shortly before Percy answered.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Er, well, we looked everywhere, Percy, honest. Most kids were out earlier searching for her, that's why we came a bit late to breakfast, but the thing is-"

"Annabeth's gone."

Nico cut Will off before he could keep going, and they waited a moment to let the words sink in. It seemed everyone was silent as well, awaiting Percy's reaction in anticipation for him to tell them what to do. For a moment Percy wondered if this was all a dream, a nightmare, more of, that he would wake from in the morning, but looking around Percy realized the familiar fair haired daughter of Athena was indeed missing from her table. His eyes widened in an upcoming state of panic, but for the sake of the audience before him, he decided to remain calm. He was there leader, in a way, and he couldn't show how disheveled his mind was becoming.

"What do you mean? Nico, are you sure? Maybe-maybe she's just in her cabin, have you checked there?"

"5 times this morning." Malcolm Pace, Annabeth's half brother informed, looking just as worried as Percy. He had bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days.

"Well what are we doing then? We need to _look for her!_ "

"Percy, we're doing everything we can, but we can't just leave camp, it's dangerous-" Chiron began but again Percy didn't let him finish.

"I can handle a bit of danger, _Chiron_ , my girlfriend is missing. Let me find her. She can't just be gone. She can't."

No one missed the crack in Percy's voice, or the hurt look in his eyes, the feeling of helplessness surrounded the camp like an aura, a strong, powerful, aura.

"We need a quest, then. A quest for the daughter of Athena."

 **A/N : if you enjoyed this story please feel free to comment your thoughts!**

 **This idea has intrigued me for awhile and I finally decided to start writing it. It takes place in the Heroes of Olympus series, in the Lost Hero and Son of Neptune when Percy is sent to Camp Jupiter, except it's with Annabeth instead. Thanks for reading!**


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